Women Don't Ask

Linda Babcock is James M. Walton Professor of Economics at Carnegie Mellon University's H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management. Sara Laschever is a writer whose work has been published by the "New York Times", the "New York Review of Books", the "Village Voice", "Vogue", and other publications.

• PREFACE: WhyNegotiation, and Why Now? ix INTRODUCTION: Women Don't Ask 1 CHAPTER ONE: Opportunity Doesn't Always Knock 17 CHAPTER TWO: A Price Higher than Rubies 41 CHAPTER THREE: Nice Girls Don't Ask 62 CHAPTER FOUR: Scaring the Boys 85 CHAPTER FIVE: Fear of Asking 112 CHAPTER SIX: Low Goals and Safe Targets 130 CHAPTER SEVEN: Just So Much and No More 148 CHAPTER EIGHT: The Female Advantage 164 EPILOGUE: Negotiating at Home 180 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 187 NOTES 189 REFERENCES 201 INDEX 217

Runner-Up for the IPPY Best Book Award for Women's Issues "Babcock and Laschever, contrary to their book's title, do ask a series of questions: Why do most women see a negotiation as an automatic fight instead of a chance to get what they deserve? Why are women afraid to ask for what they deserve? Why are women afraid to ask for what they want in the workplace? And perhaps most importantly, why don't women feel entitled to ask for it...? [A] great resource for anyone who doubts there is still a great disparity between the salary earnings of men and women in comparable professions"--Publishers Weekly "A highly readable book... Women Don't Ask should be read by anyone with a fear of negotiating, male or female, and by managers who want a better understanding of how 47 percent of the work force confronts the workplace."--Alan B. Krueger, The New York Times "Women Don't Ask is not a straight recitation of findings--nor is it simply a "rant." It goes beyond well-known facts and offers concrete tips on how women can remedy the underlying problems and actually move ahead. The authors prescribe refreshingly specific methods of negotiation that they've seen work for even the most confrontationally-challenged women."--Allison Nazarian, ForeWord Magazine "Neither a dry academic treatise nor a self-help book, this work puts forth a model for a society that respects women's communication strengths."--Library Journal "This thoughtful analysis could both benefit managers across industry lines and help women learn the importance of developing negotiating skills."--Booklist "Women Don't Ask offers important insights into the persistent economic gap between men and women."--Dolores Kong, Boston Globe "Clear, useful, and sensibly organized... Women Don't Ask crisply describes the results of one study after another, fitting the puzzle pieces together to show how and why women are held back--and hold themselves back--from advancing both financially and in every other way."--E.J. Graff, Women's Review of Books "The first book to adequately explain the dramatic differences in how men and women negotiate and why women so often fail to ask for what they want at work (starting with equal pay). Every male manager in America should read it."--Fortune